Rustin's Spoils of the Week #82

Scooooooooooooooooooooore!!! Not a lot but what it is is some stuff I'm pretty jazzed to get. ...or am I!? Spoils readers, read these Spoils!

Bandai - Ben 10: RipjawsBen 10 is an interesting thing to me. Initially I just wrote it off as a show built around a goofy title but the more toys Bandai got out the more interested I became. I kind of have the impression it's this generation's Batman: The Animated Series - there's just so many cool designs. I hadn't been too into these (presumably) collector-oriented, high detailed, "realistic" interpretations of the characters as the designs always seemed to lose something in the translations, but this guy was just too cool to pass up (especially since I got him for $7 at Ross!). Articulation is just as limited as it looks - the bottom jaw is a separate piece and while I can wiggle it around it's not actually articulated. This is just a great confluence of everything this vinyl line is. I think they totally improved this design here, the addition of scales and a bit more detail on the armor all look great. The paint is very simple but oddly the heavy, almost sloppy black wash goes a long way to adding detail and character to this sculpt. I do kind of wish the eyes were more than just disks and I was quite surprised to find the Angler-fish bulb is not glow in the dark. Were I a more creative man I'd get a couple more for some cool repaints. A simple figure to be sure, but as far as sea creature monsters there few better available today!

Hasbro - Avengers: Nick FuryAaaaaand the Avengers are complete. This is a weird figure, not really screen accurate and somewhere in between the good-ness of Black Widow and the disappointment of everything else - at least articulation wise. His arms are the standard-to-this-line balljointed shoulders and elbows while he gets a balljointed ribcage and fully articulated Marvel Universe style legs. I do dig the sculpted trench coat, done in a semi-folded, "blowing in the wind" pose familiar from the promotional art, though the chest is conspicuously not the "wetsuit" from the film (yo has pointed out this is actually the Winter Soldier's body). But, most importantly, the likeness is good - great even! And really, at the end of the day, isn't that the most important thing for this character.

Mattel - DCUC: Yellow Hal & Blue KyleI had heard tangentially that this last line of two packs had made it out but never saw any sign of them (shockingly, Shazam vs. Black Adam wasn't the hot seller they expected and still clogs all shelves in TRUs nationwide) so imagine my surprise when not only did I find this but I found it at a Ross and thus only paid $13 for it!?!? At that price it's hard not to walk away happy, and indeed I am, though that is not to say it is without its faults. Both figures are pure repaints, and not even that exciting of repaints. I haven't read much, or any, Green Lantern since finishing the disappointing Blackest Night so I can only assume the costumes and box text are accurate. While I dig the blue and yellow costumes, and they certainly pop a bit more than more green, I would have preferred a repaint of Kyle into his classic/original costume, and frankly just about anything other than another Hal.

Playmobil - Fi?ures: PirateFINALLY!!! Series 3 has started to show up! And most shocking of all... I found this guy at Target! Playmobil used to have a sizable presence at Target but hasn't been seen there in about two years, so is this a brave return? A simple holiday trial? Who knows... but this did ring up as something from the Grocery department. Well, the continued good news is that this guy (the only pack I found) was the Pirate who is arguably the best of the Boys Series 3, if not the whole of Series 3 (though I am quite eager for the Statue of Liberty)! I love the color choices here, which is usually where Playmobil can fall short for me. It's a great balance of beige, red, green and brown with his dark tattoo and golden khopesh (or arakh, if you'd prefer [as I do]) adding some flourishes to keep it from getting too boring. He comes with a red sash/belt painted on his torso which is a great option should you choose not to used the brown waist armor reused from the Samurai Special. I love squids and octopi so these tentacled tattoos they're doing are right up my alley, and indeed I'm starting to hope they continue them as a sort of subline so that we can assemble a similarly tattooed pirate crew! This is a great figure and well worth the wait.

It's definitely a two-pack worth looking for. The correctly-colored Azbats is great, and the Wounded Batman is the best we'll get to put up against Ra's al Ghul until we get a full-on Shirtless Batman. I have mine posed fighting against the Big Red Predator to replicate "Batman: Dead End".

I managed to grab that shelf-clogging Shazam/Black Adam pack for $5 recently. Some poor shmuck in stocking had labelled their last one with the tag meant for the Infinite Heroes Guy Gardener/Black Hand two-pack. Given the price inflation inherent in TRU, I felt no real compunction to point this out. XD

That style of Ben 10 figures have always impressed me. They had given me hope that Bandai's Thundercats wouldn't suck horribly....

I think its more appropraite to call Ben 10 this generation's Masters of the Universe... except instead of running itself into the ground it has continued to thrive. But as far as the quality of the show itself, comparing it to Batman: TAS is fair. I've only seen the first couple seasons of the original series, none of the subsequent incarnations, but I enjoyed the heck out of watching them. It was really well written, smart plots, witty dialogue, great animation, and it never dumed things down, or condescended to the audience. If I had kids today I would have no problem with letting them watch this show.